Colorado Election Security Intact Despite Online Exposure of Partial Voting System Passwords

The Colorado Department of State announced on Tuesday that partial passwords to certain voting system components were accidentally posted online but emphasized that this poses no risk to the upcoming Nov. 5 general election.

According to the department, a spreadsheet on its website mistakenly contained a hidden tab listing partial passwords for some components of the state’s voting systems.

“This does not present an immediate security risk to Colorado’s elections and will not impact ballot counting,” the department stated.

Upon discovering the issue, the department took swift action and reported it to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

A CISA representative confirmed awareness of the incident, adding that it is communicating with the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office and deferring specific mitigation steps to them, as the incident only affects Colorado’s voting systems.

Hope Scheppelman, vice chair of Colorado’s Republican Party, claimed that over 600 passwords for voting systems across 63 of Colorado’s 64 counties were posted on the website without encryption and may have been accessible since at least August. She provided an affidavit from an individual who reportedly accessed the passwords from Aug. 8 to Oct. 23, though Reuters was unable to verify the document independently.

In its statement, the Colorado Department of State underscored that the election system relies on numerous security layers.

“Each election equipment component requires two unique passwords, stored separately and held by different parties,” the statement said. Additionally, passwords can only be used with physical, in-person access to voting systems, and strict chain-of-custody protocols monitor access to voting equipment components.

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